This invention relates to packaging and is more particularly concerned with improvements in carrier packages for an assembly or group of articles in the form of bottles which are secured in grouped arrangement by means of a cap gripping plastic shroud and is more partituclarly concerned with an improved arrangement in which there is incorporated in the package a promotional card insert of paperboard or similar foldable sheet material.
In a recently developed packaging arrangement for marketing a group of so-called stubby type beverage bottles the bottles are disposed in double line and transversely paired relation and a plastic shroud having a top panel, with openings for the bottle necks and depending peripherial sidewall portions, is forced down over the tops of the bottles and into relatively tight engagement with top portions of the bottles, the sidewall portions being molded or shaped in part to conform to portions of the bottles at the outside periphery of the group and the bottom margin of the shroud being in part in the form of a relatively narrow band which is of generally rectangular configuration with rounded corners which encircle in part the bottles at the four corners of the group.
While the shroud in this type package is wholly or partially transparent it covers a goodly portion of the normally visible areas of the bottles and reduces the areas available for product identification, advertising and Promotional material which, as a practical matter, cannot be incorporated in the shroud itself in a satisfactory manner. Consequently, there has developed a desire, on the part of the bottlers and others involved in the marketing of the products, for an inexpensive addition to the package to enable the package to be made more competitive with other bottle packaging arrangements.